Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Fiona is playing catch up!

This is going to be the first of a series of catch up blogs today. Monday...
The Mardi Gras Museum was really mouth dropping. Some of the costumes were beyond the imagination. It takes almost a year to create the outfits for the King and Queen and the costs can be well over $100,000.00 for each. Each person who participates is a volunteer and pays their own way. The trains are about 18 feet long and can weigh upwards of 150 lbs! Can you imagine schlepping one of those on your back? Mardi Gras originated in Mobile, Alabama before New Orleans. The industry created by the festivities is the main financial support for the area. It brings in about 3 billion dollars a year. Our next stop was at the headquarters of the Order of Myths... one of the top secret societies that participates in Mardi Gras. This is a male only bastion but we were allowed inside. Most people don't even know where the building is it is so secret.
Our next stop was lunch at a place called Seven Gables. It is a large Greek Revival Seaside Cottage overlooking the Mobile Bay. Cottage is a rather large misnomer in this case. This is the lovely veranda as you enter the house. The house is decorated with traditional antiques and is owned by a rather eccentric older couple who while not the original owners, might as well have been. We were greeted by the lady of the house who we noticed had green hands. The story is that one of the members of the staff got over zealous with some weed killer and killed off much of the grass by the entry to the house upon which we were to tread. The mistress then used some green Rit dye to touch up the color on the grass!
This is the rear of the "cottage".  It sits on a rather high bluff overlooking the bay and is quite the piece of property.
Lunch was a boxed affair I could have easily lived without but Fiona did seem to enjoy her traditional sweet tea out on the back porch. The weather was lovely.

Our next stop was a Greek Orthodox family church which was built in the late 1960's. It has some lovely stained glass windows.
That pretty much took care of the days activities. Evening was a fancy dinner but Fiona was tuckered out so she didn't go. I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures of the lovely Southern Belles in traditional dress with the huge hoop skirts and bonnets and umbrella's.



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